Chapter 348
Aoun Castle was built around the obsidian mines and the surrounding mountain range, but after the passage of many years, it had grown extremely old.
Castle walls, by their nature, are broken and repaired through war, maintaining their strength, but the rest of the structure was not the same.
When Simon first came to look around Aoun Castle, he was shocked to see that the vital pillars meant to bear the weight were terribly decayed.
At first, he worried, ‘What if the enemy brings this place down?’ but soon that thought changed to, ‘What if I bring it down first?’
— Do not worry. The obsidian mines are extremely resistant to external shock,
the safest place in the entire kingdom. Even if the entire castle collapses, the inside of the mine will remain safe.
That was precisely why the king had evacuated civilians into the mines.
So, Simon planted the gigantic, colossal monster, Abyssal Horror, in the very lowest area—the roots of the castle and, with the help of the skeleton mage, set it off with Corpse Explosion.
Krrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
The result was horrific.
When the ground below collapses, the top inevitably follows.
Just as a landslide strips a mountain bare, every building, staircase, and structure was swept away all at once.
The screams of Karl Kingdom’s soldiers were buried beneath the deafening roar of collapsing buildings, and countless soldiers turned into black rain as they fell along with the rubble.
Ku-qua-qua-qua-qua-qua-qua!
The entire terrain filled with a thick, dusty haze, and soon, just as the king had said, the original form of the towering mountains and the mine beneath was revealed.
Only the royal palace, built atop the mine, remained intact. Everyone watching was left speechless.
“......Wow, seriously.”
Dick let out a hollow laugh as he looked down from the palace.
“The idea of the defending side collapsing their own castle, that’s not something you can easily think of.”
[Lurie Folorence eliminated.]
[Rosaria Liodel eliminated.]
[Mark Chandler eliminated.]
.......
.......
[Defending Team (9/15)]
[Attacking Team (3/15)]
This single strike had wiped out seven attacking team players.
The war was all but over.
“That’s annihilation right there.”
“Hector too?”
“Looks like he survived. But still, that’s not the kind of damage two or three people can handle.”
While Simon and the students were peeking their heads out from the palace to watch.
“Thank you for saving the kingdom, squeak.”
Came a deep, weighty voice from behind them.
“Your Majesty!”
The King of Aoun Kingdom was approaching. Simon bowed his head.
“I am sorry. To stop Karl Kingdom, there was no other way but this....”
“Screech, no. Do not apologize, Guardian.”
The king gently patted Simon’s shoulder.
“The city can be rebuilt at any time. What matters is—”
The king and the students turned their gazes behind them.
“—the people.”
Hearing that the soldiers had arrived, the beastkin hiding in the mines rushed out, embracing the soldiers and sharing in the joy.
Some beastkin exchanged passionate kisses on the spot, while soldiers, smiling broadly, beheld unharmed children.
“What is a city worth? If we unite once more, we can do anything.”
The king continued with a warm smile.
“Thank you for saving the people, Guardian.”
* * *
Several hours later, the dusty haze cleared, revealing the sheer cliff-like mountains where Aoun Castle once stood.
The castle and the residential areas had been swept away like dirt washed downstream, and all that remained were the mountains and the dark patches of exposed obsidian mine.
With this attack, Karl Kingdom had suffered near total destruction.
Only three necromancers remained, and the army was no longer capable of fighting.
There were so many wounded that organizing them was impossible.
Elisa, determined to try something, gathered the uninjured soldiers outside the inner castle and ordered an attack, but while they climbed the high mountains, they were fully exposed to the arrows of Aoun Kingdom’s archers, and ended up being wiped out once again.
Fuming with rage, Elisa tried to carry out a landing operation by loading troops onto a ghost ship, but the defending necromancers were not about to sit still.
Led by Maelyn, Darkness-element fire magic poured down like a sea of flames,
and Elisa fled, having lost only a single ghost ship.
“Damn it!”
Bang!
Hector grabbed Elisa by the collar and slammed her against the wall.
She let out a small groan, frowning.
“......That hurts. Does a noble heir think it’s alright to lay hands on a lady?”
“Cut the crap, Elisa Celine!!”
Hector glared at her with eyes sharp enough to kill, looking as if he might tear her apart at any moment.
“I did everything the way you wanted! You even went against my will, and threw Jule at Simon to use him up! And this is the result?!”
“......I’ve got nothing to say.”
Elisa sighed.
She had been so sure the victory was already hers that she moved too hastily.
Instead of sending troops straight to the palace, she should have calmly scouted the surroundings, figured out the opponent’s moves, and acted accordingly.
Her “one step ahead” tactics, seizing the north gates of both the outer and inner castles, destroying the Guardian Stone, had worked all throughout the war, but in the end, they became a fatal poison.
With a resigned expression, Elisa bowed her head.
“......I admit my mistake in command. If hitting me will ease your anger, do as you please.”
Hector ground his teeth audibly, slammed her into the wall once more, then turned his back. Elisa slumped down to the floor.
“Heh-heh.”
A faint, crooked smile crept onto her lips.
“I’ll repay this debt someday, Simon Follentia.”
With those words, Elisa withdrew all ghost ships, touched her card and forfeited the game herself.
If there was no chance of victory, it was wiser to leave the game early and go search for another card.
“Damn it all......!”
Hector lifted his head and glared at the royal palace atop the mountain.
The ending of the siege was spectacular.
Beyond the dawn-lit horizon, the cavalry of allied nations, here to aid Aoun Kingdom, struck Karl Kingdom’s army from behind.
Under normal circumstances, the appearance of these reinforcements would have been far more dramatic, but with Aoun’s forces all in the palace, and Karl Kingdom reduced to mere remnants, it ended without much excitement.
Still, it was magnificent.
Looking down at the cavalry kicking up dust as they swept through the enemy
made one’s chest swell with pride.
[Aoun Kingdom has achieved victory!]
[Thanks to your efforts, Aoun Kingdom will enjoy prosperity once more!]
[The defending team has won the game!]
Along with the victory message, a card appeared before the surviving students, flashing brightly in midair.
It was the purple card of the siege.
“We won!”
Finally realizing their victory, everyone let out cheers of joy and grabbed their cards.
“Huh?”
“What is it, Simon?”
Dick, in the middle of doing a ceremonial kiss on his purple card, asked.
“It feels like there’s another card tucked behind mine....”
Fwaaaaaaash!
A brilliant light flared behind Simon’s purple card. Only he had a second card.
Maelyn exclaimed in surprise.
“That’s a golden card!”
Indeed, it was.
A golden card, one that no one had ever obtained before, was shining in Simon’s hand.
“So it drops from siege battles too!”
“Guess you have to rack up as much merit as Simon to get one.”
The best possible card set was red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, and the golden card, eight in total.
Now Simon only needed two more colors to reach the highest score possible.
“Congratulations, Simon.”
A fellow member of the Mutant Club, Fitzgerald, came over and said,
“Thanks. You did an incredible job too, so I feel bad that I’m the only one getting this.”
“You’re exaggerating.”
In truth, Fitzgerald’s performance in this siege was also remarkable.
Although he never overlapped with Simon’s areas of action, he practically held the entire outer castle’s east gate by himself, and when the north gate was breached, he protected retreating allies while holding back thousands of Karl Kingdom soldiers.
He also managed to take down several attacking team students from Keyzen, but his achievements still could not compare to Simon’s, who had wiped out over ten thousand soldiers and seven necromancer students.
“Heh-heh-heh, I’ll gladly take my card for now~”
Dick tucked his purple card into his chest with care and looked up.
“Something tells me this isn’t the end! There’s something else, right? Endolas!”
Almost as if in response to Dick’s words, a new burst of light appeared in the air.
With cheap firecracker sounds of pop-pop!, winged gift boxes began fluttering down from above everyone’s heads.
“Knew it!”
“It’s Endolas’ prize!”
The students excitedly opened the gift boxes that fell at their feet. Inside was a black, gleaming mineral.
“This is obsidian ore.”
“Real obsidian? That’s super expensive!”
“So that’s why they added the obsidian mine setting to the game!”
Grinning from ear to ear, the students began comparing sizes, boasting whose piece was bigger and whose was smaller.
“Wow!”
Dick shouted.
“This is insane! Mine’s huge! Absolutely massive!”
“......Don’t say that out loud, you lunatic!”
For some reason, Maelyn shouted with her face bright red.
As everyone enjoyed their lively banter—
“......”
—Simon was the only one standing awkwardly empty-handed. Dick came over to him.
“Hey, Simon, how big is yours? Don’t tell me it’s bigger than mine? Let’s compare!”
“I, I didn’t get a gift.”
“Huh?”
Maelyn and Fitzgerald soon joined them.
“Why didn’t Simon get one?”
“Maybe the golden card was his gift instead.”
“No way that’s—!”
Fwaaaaaaaaaash!
Just then, the glowing dawn in the sky cast a straight beam down on the students.
The dazzling flash made them cover their eyes with their arms and step back.
“Look over there!”
Within the dawn’s light, a gift box far larger than anyone else’s appeared and floated toward Simon.
“That’s it!”
Dick jumped with excitement.
“That’s the grand prize Endolas showed in the auditorium!”
“You’re right! So it was tied to the siege after all!”
The massive box dropped neatly into Simon’s arms. Setting it on the ground, he gripped the lid with a pounding heart.
The surrounding students crowded in around him.
“Shall I open it?”
Simon gave a playful grin. The students roared so loudly it shook the air.
“Open it! Open it!”
“Stop stalling and open it already!”
Chuckling as if giving in, Simon opened the box.
—Kek-kek-kek-kek-kek!!
With an irritating laugh, a staff shot up into the air and began darting all over the palace.
“It’s the autonomous staff, ‘Areldellu’!”
Simon nodded.
As a Summonology aspirant, he had secretly hoped for the Death Phoenix, but this wasn’t bad at all. In fact, with his current work on creating a Lich, this might be even better.
—Kek-kek-kek-kek!
Areldellu zipped around the palace, pranking the students, firing curses to change their hair color, or smacking Dick on the back of the head before fleeing.
“Why you—!”
Dick leapt to grab Areldellu, but it slipped out from beneath him and hooked his legs from behind, sending him tumbling.
“Ugh, damn!”
Dick rolled pathetically on the floor, clutching his head.
“What kind of staff is this?!”
“You idiots, what are you doing?”
Maelyn laughed with her hands on her hips, but Areldellu zipped in front of her
and flipped her skirt up with a fwip.
“@#$!#^#$!!!”
Maelyn’s face turned crimson as she lunged in fury.
“I’ll kill you!!”
She fired ice wildly into the air, but Areldellu dodged with infuriating agility.
“Hm—”
Dick placed a thoughtful hand on his chin.
“That might not even be a staff—”
Crack!
An ice chunk from Maelyn smashed into the back of his head, ropping him flat on the floor.
Simon quietly chuckled and extended his hand.
“Come back.”
Thankfully, recognizing its master, Areldellu zipped straight into Simon’s grasp. He quickly sent it back into subspace before Maelyn could snap it in two.
“A portal!”
Just then, a portal leading out of the game opened. Everyone laughed cheerfully and exchanged thanks for their hard work.
“Screech! Formation!”
The king, soldiers, and all the townsfolk stepped in front of the students as they prepared to leave.
“Salute to the great Guardians!”
“Aium Aoun!”
All the soldiers saluted the students.
“Screech! Thank you for saving the kingdom!”
“Goodbye, squeak!”
The soldiers and townsfolk they had fought alongside waved at them.
Feeling a lump in their throats, the students waved back one last time. Simon too waved, then picked up the empty box that had held Areldellu, and stepped toward the portal.
The perfect use for this staff had just come to mind.
Superb.
When are we getting more free chapters?
Thanks for the new chapters